Chapter 23

Chapter 22  (13+) Lise and Jack are an item. Rudolfo figures stuff out. #2038997 by Hyperiongate

Chapter 23

It started out as nothing – literally.

No one actually saw the event; except of course, the camera. One moment the Artifact was there, putting on its celestial show and the next moment, it was gone.

Szokoly was asleep in an adjoining room when one of his physicists came running in.

“Dr. Szokoly, you have to come out here right now. It’s the Artifact.”

Instantly awake, the senior scientist ask the obvious, “What about the Artifact?”

“It’s gone! At least we think it’s gone. No one has actually gone out to check; but from what we can see from the observation booth, it’s left the building.”

Szokoly was out the door before the end of the last sentence. “Someone put in a call to Lanier. He’d going to want to know about this.”

He didn’t even hesitate at the heavy containment door that allowed access to the Artifact chamber. He burst through and went straight over to the edge of the pit that the Artifact had been nesting in since they found it. In the last few days, it had changed from a cream-colored cylinder to a 3-D planetarium of sorts.

Now it was gone.

“Doctor, the colonel is on his way.”

Szokoly took one last look at the empty pit and turned back towards the observation room. He couldn’t help but feel somewhat guilty. It’s as if he’d been the one that lost the Artifact.

A moment later, the colonel entered the Artifact Chamber.

Before Szokoly could speak, the colonel looked past him and said, “What’s going on here?”

“Sir, I have no idea. One moment the Artifact was in its “celestial” mode and the next it went missing.”

The colonel looked at his senior scientist questioningly. “I don’t know what “went missing” means but if I did, it would probably look a lot like that,” he said, pointing into the now-empty Artifact chamber.

Szokoly was for the moment, speechless; as was the rest of his staff. How could one explain the disappearance of something as big as a bus?

The brief silence was broken by the siren.

Everyone knew what that sound meant – Evacuate!

The scientists went into automatic function. Several began packing up the modular lab components. Others scrambled around looking for the source of the alarm.

There were a number of conditions which could trigger that alarm; none of them trivial.

Lanier didn’t move. The alarm wasn’t unexpected. In fact, he was the one that initiated it as soon as he got the call less than a minute earlier. Now he stood with his arms crossed and everyone hurried to prepare for rapid evacuation. Entire suites of computers were rolled outside and into waiting cargo containers. Helicopters would already be inbound to collect both people and equipment.

Lanier was the only one that could call it off, and he waited patiently to see if that was what he would do. His cell vibrated and he took a look at the text. The B-2 flying more than ten miles overhead had just sent him a fifteen minute standby notification. At the end of that time, they would drop their payload. It would take about another five minutes for the bombs to reach the base. A fraction of a second after that, nothing would exist here except a sheet of glass formed by the melted sand.

Szokoly looked up from his console and locked eyes with the colonel. He shook his head indicating things were going to get very bad.

“What is it doctor?”

“Radiation. I don’t know where it’s coming from but the dose-rate is climbing fast. We have probably two hours before everyone on base has a lethal dose. It could be that the Artifact is trying to call our bluff. It somehow knows that you’ve called for the “drop” and is now trying to punish us for misbehaving,” said Szokoly.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said the colonel. “How is saturating us with radiation going to cause any different action than the evacuation we have going on at this very moment?”

“It’s not trying to chase us away, Colonel. The radiation growth signature is a perfect match for a slow motion climb to critical mass.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that we may not need the bombs that are about to drop. I think the Artifact intends to blow itself up with a nuclear detonation. It seems that you and the Artifact both ordered a “self-destruct” at exactly the same time.”

“Then I suggest you’d better help the others pack. I can always call mine off but the Artifact may have a different agenda,” said the colonel. He left to see how the rest of the camp was doing with the evacuation. In the few minutes since the alarm, nearly every structure had been broken down and packed away.

Ten minutes later, the unmistakable sound of helicopters had everyone anxiously looking to the sky for rescue. There were fifteen of them in all; most would be dedicated to the heavy lifting of the large cargo containers which contained virtually the entire base. The remaining would be used for personnel transport.

Lanier stayed in the Artifact building with Dr. Szokoly. He would be the last to leave, along with the scientist. Szokoly kept his eyes glued to his screen where his computer constantly updated the time left before the theoretical detonation.

Ordinarily, once a reaction became critical, detonation was nearly instantaneous. The Artifact seemed to prefer to take things a little slower. The doctor, fascinated by the idea of watching a nuclear detonation in slow motion seemed oblivious to the clear danger he was in.

“Doctor, any change?”

“No sir. We have ten minutes at the outside.”

Lanier took out his phone and called the B-2.

“Drop your payload. Drop it now.”

“Bombs away. Four minutes, eight seconds until impact,” said a voice on the other end of the line.

The B-2 made a long slow turn to the south and headed back to Nellis Air Force Base. Now all that remained was for gravity to do its job. The hope was that the bombs would hit the camp before the Artifact detonated. The fallout from a significant nuclear explosion would be catastrophic, especially for the people of Reno and other nearby towns.

A uniform burst into the room and said, “Colonel, we need to get you out of here now. It’s going to take a few minutes to get clear of the blast area. Everyone else has already been lifted away.”

“We’re on our way,” he said, nodding to the doctor to wrap it up. It was time to leave.
Then the unthinkable happened, as it always did when helicopters were involved. As Lanier exited the Artifact building, the helicopter, sitting only a few yards away, sputtered and died. A fireball erupted near the main rotor bearing. A moment later, several supposedly vital parts were shrappnelled out as the helicopter’s engine exploded. The crew ran out, unhurt, but no less safe.

They, along with Colonel Lanier and Dr. Szokoly, weren’t going anywhere.

Lanier checked his watch. They had about three minutes to go before the boms arrived. That gave them precious little time to do anything, especially if the Artifact blew sooner.

Lanier took one last look up at the sky and said, “Run for it.”

Without waiting for further discussion, the men began sprinting into the desert in an effort to put as much room between themselves and Armageddon as possible.

Wes knew they didn’t have time. The blast area would be at least a half a mile in diameter. Still, it was best to let them go down trying to save themselves.

He allowed them to get a bit ahead and then slowed to a walk before turning back to presumably take one final look at what was to be his final project. He’d been involved with Dark Blue Operations for twenty years. During that time, he’d seen things that most people could only imagine. This Artifact was just the last in a long string of weirdness.

Still, there was something about this project that made it feel somehow – substantial. It was as if this one event was going to result in something more than a string of denials for the public and unanswered questions for the scientists lucky enough to have been involved.

With the bombs only minutes away from impact, the Colonel started walking slowly towards the remains of the camp. There was really only one building of substance left; the Artifact containment chamber. Made out of concrete, it was the only structure that was not immediately portable.

The Colonel entered the Artifact building with only seconds to spare.

“What are you?” he asked the hole in the ground where the Artifact had been since they first discovered it.

Everything shifted.

Lanier found himself standing a few feet from where he’d been only a moment before. A computer terminal that had been left behind on a table, was now sitting on a chair. A cabinet that was left with its doors ajar now stood in the corner with both doors closed.

The Artifact had returned, sitting silently in the hole that had been its home for the last few weeks.

The Colonel felt a slight sense of disorientation. For just a moment, he felt as if he was sliding sideways and nothing made any sense. Then the earth moved, as if a series of minor earthquakes were striking the camp.

Then his head cleared. Lanier knew there was no earthquake. He walked out of the Artifact Containment Chamber and saw what he knew caused the ground the rumble. Even though it was still dark outside, with the moon providing the only light, he had little trouble seeing the six massive bunker-buster bombs where they lay unexploded in the center of the compound.

The Colonel looked back at the Artifact through the open door and said, “I guess you decided to stick around after all.”

*****

As Lanier walked silently through his recently abandoned camp, Annie read to JD11.

“It’s time.”

The thought came to her as if it had just been broadcast over the hospital’s intercom system.

She stopped abruptly not sure what JD11 meant; there was no doubt that the message was from him.
“Quickly. Go now!” came the message.

She dashed out of the room, hitting the Code Blue alarm as she passed by. She didn’t need to look at the data readouts to know that JD11 was going into distress.

Alone in a giant glass tomb, filled with gel, JD11 began to struggle as wave after wave of seizures took control of his limbs. His body had finally woken up and was fighting in a panic to escape the strange environment in which it found itself.

Annie wasn’t going to wait for a night nurse to show up with a crash cart. She knew what “It’s time” meant and she was going to need some help.

It was time to call in the marines.

She knew Sergeant Jackson was only a few rooms away. JD11 had taught her to always be aware of where the nearest marine was at. He’d told her there would come a time when she would need their help.

Now was that time.

She burst into the room where the sergeant suddenly became busy with arranging detergent on the shelves.

“I need your help now!” She turned and ran back to the TIG room with the sergeant close behind; his weapon suddenly visible. He spoke into his shoulder as he ran. He didn’t know what kind of help was needed but he assumed the worse. The cavalry was on the way.

Chapter 24  (13+) JD11 begins to drown #2039150 by Hyperiongate